French Open Highlights day 7

The men

1) Thiem Defeats Zverev.  In an outstanding match, Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in four sets.  At 5-5 in the first set, with Zverev serving at deuce, Thiem hit a ball that was called out.  The umpire confirmed the call by checking the mark.  HOWEVER, the TV network Hawkeye showed that Thiem’s shot was actually in and that he should have won the point.  Zverev lost the next point, so if the correct call had been made Thiem would have won that game and gone up 6-5 with a chance to serve out the set.  Instead, Zverev won the game.  Thiem then held serve at 5-6 but lost the subsequent tiebreaker.  If the line call at 5-5 had been correct and nothing else had changed, Thiem would have won the first set instead of losing it.  Thiem won the match anyway, but once again, the deficiency of “eyeball” line calling was exposed.  In other matches:

Ernests Gulbis remained in the tournament as Tsonga retired with an injury.

David Goffin, the diminutive tennis genius, defeated Almagro in 5 sets.

Berdych beat Pablo Cuevas, a good win for Thomas.

Djokovic cruised over Bedene.

The women

2) Serena Williams beat 23-year-old Kristina Mladenovic by 6-4, 7-6.  This match was remarkable for Mladenovic’ high quality of play.  She served well, hit a big forehand, showed plenty of touch with numerous drop shots, and really hunkered down when she got in trouble.  She is currently ranked 30 in the world.  In my opinion she is France’s best hope for having a woman reach the top 10 in the near future.  In other matches:

Ivanovic went out to Svitolina.

Madison Keys moved on.

Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, a big, strong woman, won again.  She’s had a good

year and is backing it up in this tournament.

Venus Williams is still in it.  She knocked off Cornet.

Daria Kasatkina lost but we certainly haven’t heard the last of her.